Burning Homefires

“Why?”

“Why” is what gets me from “Have to” to “Want to”.  It is what helps me gather an emotional connection for the item, project, reminder, task.

“Why” reminds me who’s going to be affected.

“Why” reminds me how it relates to what I’m doing, both professionally and personally.

“Why” helps me determine and re-evaluate the item(s), especially if I can’t find the emotion required to deliver.  Is it really that important of a thing?  Can I bypass it and focus on where the emotion is?

“Why” is not “…need to be…”.  It doesn’t mean I “need to be” doing more networking; I “need to be” better at marketing; I “need to be” thinking about expansion.  I’m finding that the more understanding I can gather about purpose and connection the greater my motivation and general quality of work.

But what about other people you know or work with?  Incentives get them cracking each day?  That super awesome reward and punishment approach drives the most awesome motivation?

Yea, probably not.

The thing about being in the position you’re in where you’re presented with super-problems is that solutions aren’t straight line, narrow-focus items that get delivered immediately.

Those issues that require you to think laterally or work through things with cognitive skills mean incentives aren’t going to cut it.  As a matter of fact, numerous economic studies of organisations which use monetary incentives have found the exact opposite; that they are disincentives and produce low morale, high staff turnover, and decreased productivity.

Motivation starts when you get the carrot off the table and you start putting yourself in charge.  In charge of the outcome, the product, the result.

Find your “Why” every day and you’ll see your engagement climb, your productivity soar, your delivery and quality will reach new highs.

I look at each task this way – I’m in charge of the outcome, I’m the one who is the best choice to do it, I care about delivering it for this person.  The delivery becomes easy once I feel those 3 statements are true.

Applying the same to any employee GammaWorks is lucky enough to need in the future is what, I hope, will separate it as a top-notch company and a great place to work.  Endorsing that ROWE concept (Results Only Work Environment) and allowing people to find their sense of purpose through emotional ownership means that we’ll be the best; at everything.

And that’s a vision that motivates the hell out of me.

Thanks for reading!

Max